...LONDON (S&P Global Ratings) Dec. 3, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that hotel group Accor S.A.'s announcement on Nov. 27, 2018 that it plans to increase its ownership in Poland-based hotel operator Orbis to 100% and subsequently dispose of Orbis' hotel assets--as part of its strategy to become a purely asset-light hotel operator--is credit positive and remains commensurate with the rating. Our ratings on Accor (###-/Stable/A-3) are therefore unaffected by the announcement. Accor has announced a tender offer to increase its shareholding in Orbis from 53% to 100%, for around 450 million. Once Accor gains full control over Orbis, which is expected in the first half of 2019, it plans to dispose of Orbis' 71 hotel assets as part of its asset-light transformation strategy. This supports our current assessment of Accor's business, as we view asset-light hotel business models favorably from a credit perspective. This is because they tend to generate higher and more stable returns on capital,...
